Timber cladding on block wall

awec · 20-05-2020 9:46pm #1

I have a block wall running the length of my house on one side. The wall at it's highest point is roughly 10 feet I'd say. It's not a consistent height, as you go further from the house it gets shorter.

I am considering cladding part of the wall in timber (the bit of the wall that's in the back garden). I'm thinking of horizontal lengths of timber, of varying thicknesses.

Has anyone done this and have any feedback on how it turned out? I don't really fancy painting the wall as after a few years I think it'll start to look a bit tatty. I'm also looking at building a raised bed along underneath this wall, with some spotlighting going up the wall and across the lawn, so I think the timber would look nice.

The wall has piers, what do people usually do? Leave the piers, or clad around them? The piers are pretty much a 9" cavity block thick, so running the timber so that it's flush with the piers is not an option, there'd be way too much of a gap behind it.

Any recommendations on the type of timber to use?

mloc123 · 22-05-2020 10:14pm

Just started a similar job here today, I am using 2x1 treated deal fixed to vertical battens which I have express nailed to the wall.

For the piers... maybe render and paint them? Make it a feature

Lumen · 23-05-2020 8:57am

I would just bridge the piers and not worry about the gap behind.

Some ideas here. I don't like the result they achieved, TBH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X8xuipr4_A

GinSoaked · 23-05-2020 10:02am

^^^^^

If you are going to that trouble why not make a feature of it and put the cladding on at 45 degrees.

A neighbor has timber cladding (horizontal) on feature walls in their new garden design. Looks nice but its all done in a reddish coloured hard wood wouldn't have been cheap.

mloc123 · 23-05-2020 1:28pm

Completed my section this morning

GinSoaked · 23-05-2020 2:53pm

Looks good with the other materials, slabs, render and foliage surrounding it.

awec · 23-05-2020 3:39pm

Looks great mloc. Did you get PAO deal?

mloc123 · 23-05-2020 7:45pm

awec wrote: »

Looks great mloc. Did you get PAO deal?

No, rough cut treated deal... it actually looks better than I had expected. Originally I planned to maybe char the wood or stain it black. But the deal has a nice tone, not the usual green treated stuff I expected.

daheff · 23-05-2020 7:59pm

How did you connect the batons to the blockwork? Screws/nails/no more nails?

Are you treating the wood with anything to stop it rotting (especially any cut ends)?

GinSoaked · 23-05-2020 8:10pm

daheff wrote: »

How did you connect the batons to the blockwork? Screws/nails/no more nails?

Are you treating the wood with anything to stop it rotting (especially any cut ends)?

The cut ends are the least of your worries but still worth treating. I work with that sort of timber a lot and where it fails first is normally where you get damp trapped between the battens and the facing timber and or where the battens are against the wall.

So what I do is to use treated timber and give the areas I know tend to rot a good soaking in Protim 265. In that case I'd give the backs of the battens a coat of Protim 265 before fixing it to the wall then I'd give the face of the battens a coat. Finally when completed I'll try and flood all the joints with it.

I do use a lot of Protim 265 but I've chicken runs with timber thats been in contact with the ground for 10 years plus thats still in good shape.

RobAMerc · 23-05-2020 8:39pm

mloc123 wrote: »

Completed my section this morning

that looks really good

GinSoaked · 23-05-2020 9:01pm

Forgot one thing about cut ends, shouldn't have as I was out doing this earlier when making up a new door for the hen run. Where you have cut ends butting up against other timber as in a butt joint this is another potential early failure point so I always flood the area with Protim 265.

You can treat each cut surface as you cut it but the preservative is filthy stuff that gets all over if you do so for cut ends I just flood the areas with a really wet brush a few times after I've screwed things together. I've had to take a few apart to make changes and adjustments after applying preservative and flooding the area seems to get the preservative right into the joints.

Protim 265 comes in three colours well two and a colourless. The colourless is just that but the green one also fades after a few days in the sun so you won't notice it, no point using it if you want a green finish. The brown colour is a bit more colourfast and leaves a slightly brown colour even months later. The green is ideal so you can see where you have been but don't want to colour the wood with it.

mloc123 · 23-05-2020 10:17pm

daheff wrote: »

How did you connect the batons to the blockwork? Screws/nails/no more nails?

Are you treating the wood with anything to stop it rotting (especially any cut ends)?

I drilled the battens and used express nails to attach to the wall.

awec · 23-05-2020 10:20pm

For those that said to go straight across the piers, I don't think I want to do that, because at the bottom I want the raised bed to wrap around the piers and want to minimise the amount of lawn I've to lose. I think if I literally box off the piers with the same timber it'd look well.

Also am I right in saying the larger the gap between the timber and the wall, the more light will be behind, so more chance of seeing the wall through the gaps?

Mulbert · 24-05-2020 3:59pm

Here's a wall I cladded earlier this year, if ur looking for a different look. Not to everyone's taste I know but hey!

GinSoaked · 24-05-2020 4:05pm

Mulbert wrote: »

Here's a wall I cladded earlier this year, if ur looking for a different look. Not to everyone's taste I know but hey!

My wife would love it, I couldn't live with it :eek:

Mulbert · 24-05-2020 4:11pm

GinSoaked wrote: »

My wife would love it, I couldn't live with it :eek:

The wives know best don't you know!!

caddy16 · 25-05-2020 10:27am

mloc123 wrote: »

Just started a similar job here today, I am using 2x1 treated deal fixed to vertical battens which I have express nailed to the wall.

For the piers... maybe render and paint them? Make it a feature

Looks well, going to do the same myself. How would you fix the vertical battens to a poured concrete wall?

mloc123 · 25-05-2020 1:38pm

caddy16 wrote: »

Looks well, going to do the same myself. How would you fix the vertical battens to a poured concrete wall?

Not too sure.. is it one of those fences with the the posts and the concrete slabs?

I assume you could drill without issue, driving express nails might cause cracks? So possibly some concrete screws instead?

caddy16 · 25-05-2020 4:01pm

mloc123 wrote: »

Not too sure.. is it one of those fences with the the posts and the concrete slabs?

I assume you could drill without issue, driving express nails might cause cracks? So possibly some concrete screws instead?

It's a poured concrete retaining wall. Yes I suppose I can countersink the heads to make sure there flush. Thanks.

daheff · 26-05-2020 9:44am

I need to ask the awkward question....if you are express nailing wood to an outdoor wall, the wood will degrade and rot over time(hopefully many years down the line). When the time comes to replace the wood, how do you get these things out of the wall?

mloc123 · 26-05-2020 9:56am

daheff wrote: »

I need to ask the awkward question....if you are express nailing wood to an outdoor wall, the wood will degrade and rot over time(hopefully many years down the line). When the time comes to replace the wood, how do you get these things out of the wall?

With a hammer and a grinder

break up what is left of the rotted batten and grind off the exposed nail. Then start again

Edit: I would have used concrete screws... if I didn't already have a box of express nails.

daheff · 26-05-2020 12:39pm

mloc123 wrote: »

With a hammer and a grinder break up what is left of the rotted batten and grind off the exposed nail. Then start again

Edit: I would have used concrete screws... if I didn't already have a box of express nails.

ok..so I'm sold on the concrete screws!

Shellie · 26-05-2020 9:49pm

mloc123 wrote: »

Completed my section this morning

This looks excellent, nice work. Can I ask, what distance did you have between the batons on the wall, and what distance did you have between the timber beams? We're planning on doing a similar job this weekend

GinSoaked · 26-05-2020 10:14pm

If you just think about it logically you need a batten against the wall thats wide enough to take some frame fixers without splitting and deep enough to take your fixing screws. Treated 2 x 1 1/2 nominal would be my choice - thats actually 1 5/8' by 1 3/8'. Always measure the timber yourself as quoted sizes can vary a lot. Its also worthwhile having a decent space behind the cladding to allow for air movement.

mloc123 · 26-05-2020 10:53pm

Shellie wrote: »

This looks excellent, nice work. Can I ask, what distance did you have between the batons on the wall, and what distance did you have between the timber beams? We're planning on doing a similar job this weekend

As Ginsoaked predicted, I used 2x1.5 inch treated for the battens.. so the lats are 1.5 inch from the wall. For the spacing I used a few pieces of 3X1 PAO as spacers, I put the bottom lat on first and levelled it etc... then rested 4 'spacers' on it and the next lat on top of that... and so on. The spacing should be 18mm, the first picture I posted with just 3 lats was my original test at 10mm.

Calahonda52 · 27-05-2020 9:32am

mloc123 wrote: »

With a hammer and a grinder break up what is left of the rotted batten and grind off the exposed nail. Then start again

Edit: I would have used concrete screws... if I didn't already have a box of express nails.

the express will come out with a jemmy bar.
I took out a lot at the weekend with a 30 inch pry bar
to stop the pry bar crushing the tube wall I screwed in a a self tapper with a hex head which was the right size plus a bit more.
worked a dream

Shellie · 27-05-2020 9:53am

mloc123 wrote: »

As Ginsoaked predicted, I used 2x1.5 inch treated for the battens.. so the lats are 1.5 inch from the wall. For the spacing I used a few pieces of 3X1 PAO as spacers, I put the bottom lat on first and levelled it etc... then rested 4 'spacers' on it and the next lat on top of that... and so on. The spacing should be 18mm, the first picture I posted with just 3 lats was my original test at 10mm.

Cheers for that.

Our walls are longer than the timber lengths, so we'll need to put a few battens on the wall (thinking of spacing ~2m apart) and stagger the joins so we don't have a single breaking line along the wall. We might also go a bit sider on the battens, maybe 3x1.5 to give more space to secure in joining lengths. Any other tips or advice is much appreciated!

daheff · 01-06-2020 5:17pm

mloc123 wrote: »

No, rough cut treated deal... it actually looks better than I had expected. Originally I planned to maybe char the wood or stain it black. But the deal has a nice tone, not the usual green treated stuff I expected.

Can I ask where you got the wood (feel free to pm if you prefer)? Been looking at the diy chains but couldn't see what I need. Next stop is chadwicks when I can get that far.

GinSoaked · 01-06-2020 5:55pm

daheff wrote: »

Can I ask where you got the wood (feel free to pm if you prefer)? Been looking at the diy chains but couldn't see what I need. Next stop is chadwicks when I can get that far.

Any agricultural sort of timber yards you can get to? Somewhere that does agri fencing and or wooden sheds?

Down in Waterford I use http://trihysawmills.ie/

Check your prices carefully but I find most timber yards and sawmills cheaper than builders merchants and they stock a lot more treated timber.

mloc123 · 01-06-2020 8:17pm

daheff wrote: »

Can I ask where you got the wood (feel free to pm if you prefer)? Been looking at the diy chains but couldn't see what I need. Next stop is chadwicks when I can get that far.

Any local building providers, I order from Barrets in Maynooth as I find they are little cheaper than Goodwins or Chadwicks... avoid Woodies/B&Q etc... they are twice the price at least.

Timber cladding on block wall

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